Course work

In the Medieval Icelandic Studies programme, the first two semesters (autumn and spring semesters) are devoted to course work. The principal aim of the first two semesters is to lay the groundwork for further academic work in the field of Medieval Icelandic studies. The third and final semester is reserved for writing a master's thesis. The core of the coursework consists of three components:

(1) Language. No prior knowledge of Old Icelandic is required, but special emphasis is placed on developing skills in Old Icelandic in the first year through courses in Old Icelandic at introductory and intermediate levels. Courses in Modern Icelandic as a second language are also offered. 

(2) Literature, mythology, pre-Christian religion, memory of the Viking voyages. The student will get an overview of Norse literature and literary activity in Iceland and Norway in the middle ages by studying a variety of medieval texts, such as Eddic and Skaldic poetry, kings’ sagas, þættir, lives of the bishops, sagas of Icelanders, the contemporary sagas, romances, the legendary sagas (fornaldarsǫgur), as well as religious and didactic literature. In addition, students will be introduced to different theoretical approaches in the field of Norse medieval studies and contributions from other fields, such as archeology, anthropology, and sociology.

(3) History. The students will get acquainted with the fundamentals of medieval Icelandic and Scandinavian history.

Before enroling in the programme, all students are required to complete the free online introductory course The Medieval Icelandic Sagas (UOI001X) run by the University of Iceland at edX.org.

See further on preparatory work on the Preparatory Reading List.

In the first two semesters, students complete four obligatory core courses; 30 ECTS credits in the autumn semester and 10 ECTS credits in the spring semester. In addition, students can select from several optional courses. 30 ECTS credits per semester is considered full-time study, but many of our students add one five-credit course on top, completing 35 ECTS credits in a semester.

For a full overview of the courses on offer in the Medieval Icelandic Studies program, see the current Course Catalogue. 

Required courses in the 1st semester — 30 ECTS

MIS105F Old Icelandic 1 (10 ECTS)

This course allows students to discover and learn Old Norse-Icelandic, the language of the Vikings and the settlers of Iceland, the language of Egill Skallagrímsson and Snorri Sturluson and the rich Old Norse-Icelandic medieval literature including the Eddas and the Sagas. Old Norse, Old West Norse, or more specifically Old Icelandic, is the language most abundantly attested in the literary sources handed down to us from medieval Iceland in the 12th century onwards. In this course, an overview of the structure of Old Icelandic, in particular the phonology and morphology, will be provided. Excerpts of original texts will be read, translated and parsed, including stories from Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (also known as the Prose Edda), the most extensive account of Norse mythology and legends that has survived from the middle ages. For a more detailed description, please see the Course Catalogue.

MIS701F The Old Norse-Icelandic Literary Corpus – Overview and Main Questions (10 ECTS)

This course offers a detailed presentation of the Old Norse-Icelandic literary corpus, covering all of the major types of texts (poetry, sagas, laws, encyclopaedic literature, etc.). The main scholarly issues will be discussed as well as the history of scholarship in the field. A selection of texts will be read in translation. By the end of the semester the students will be familiar with the range and diversity of Old Norse-Icelandic texts. They will be aware of the main aspects of the research history and be capable of identifying the main types of texts. They will have read and discussed five major texts from the corpus.  For a more detailed description, please see the Course Catalogue.

SAG716M The Medieval North (10 ECTS)

Historical and historiographical survey of major topics in the history of the medieval North, with special emphasis on Iceland and Norway from the Viking Age into the fourteenth century. Topics include: power, kingship and state; law and feud; kinship, gender and social ties; religious and mental outlook(s); conversion, Christianity and church; economic conditions. Prior knowledge of the “factual” narrative is helpful but not necessary. Reading ability in German and/or the modern Scandinavian languages is also helpful but, again, not necessary (all mandatory readings are in English). For a more detailed description, please see the Course Catalogue.

Required course in the 2nd semester — 10 ECTS

Optional courses

In addition to the obligatory core courses, the students can choose optional courses (at least 20 ECTS), primarily in the spring semester. These vary from one year to another; see the current Course Catalogue. 

MIS704F The Sagas of Icelanders (5 ECTS; autumn semester)

This ten-credit course presents methods of reading different types of medieval sagas, based on a variety of theoretical approaches. The sagas under study belong to the genres of Íslendingasögur (sagas about early Icelanders), riddarasögur (chivalric sagas), and konungasögur (kings’ sagas). They will be read in English translation though references will also be made to the original texts. By the end of the course, the student will have acquainted himself thoroughly with several major sagas, understand their mode of narration as well as some of their other literary aspects. The student will also be aware of scholarly discourse on the sagas and will be able to use it as a basis for his own research.

MIS808F The Viking Age (5 ECTS; autumn semester)

During the Viking Age, Northmen streamed out of Scandinavia, travelling far and wide across and around Europe, and to Constantinople and the Caspian Sea in the east. A vast amount of diverse source material, written and archaeological, bears witness to the Scandinavian expansion and conveys a multitude of roles in which they engaged, e.g. terrifying raiders, peaceful traders, or mercenaries. The objective of this course is to examine the geographical expansion of vikings, and their interrelations with different cultures, and how this comes across in the source material. At the end of the course students are expected to have a thorough overview of the main events of the period, and a good idea on the relevant geographies and cultures, as well as a grasp on comparing different viking communities in different regions.

MIS810F Christian Culture in the Medieval North  (5 ECTS; autumn semester)

The course will examine how Christianity was practiced in the Medieval North from its adoption to the Reformation. Students will acquire a knowledge of the history and terminology used in discussing Christian practices, administration, and theology. The conversion and possibility of Christianity before that time will be discussed, but the course will concentrate on the twelfth century until the Reformation. It will examine the evidence for liturgy, theology, material culture, and popular beliefs that can be attested in Iceland, against the larger European background. In this course, the student will acquire a good general knowledge of the Conversion of Iceland and the history of Christianity in Iceland until the Reformation, the principal historical sources (bishop‘s sagas, homilies, church deeds, etc.), elements of liturgy, theology, church administration and popular beliefs. The student will be able to understand this history and these sources in the context of Icelandic, Scandinavian and European history.

MIS204F Icelandic Medieval Manuscripts (10 ECTS; spring semester)

This course is an introduction to Icelandic manuscript studies with a strong focus on the medieval period. Icelandic manuscript culture is remarkable in many respects, not least because of the great quantity of medieval parchment manuscripts and documents still extant today. These contain secular texts (prose and poetry), mythological texts, legal texts, ecclesiastical texts, as well as administrative material, for example. Unusual, too, was the continuity in Iceland with regard to the practice of hand-copying books over many centuries, from the medieval period to the early 20th century. The making and writing of manuscript books was a central part of Icelandic culture, and did not stop once the printing press arrived in Iceland in the mid-16th century.  The course will provide a general overview of paleographical terminology; the types of letter forms and abbreviations used in medieval Icelandic manuscripts (as well as how to expand abbreviations); and the development of script in Iceland, alongside the development of Icelandic orthography. It is on the basis of script-types, orthographical features, and identifiable scribal hands that Icelandic manuscripts are most often dated; equally, the history of the Icelandic language is also, to a significant degree, based on the extant manuscript evidence for language use and morphological forms. Types of errors made by scribes when they copied (and how to recognise them) will also be covered – this is necessary for understanding how modern printed editions of manuscript texts are put together. Topics furthermore include the technology of book-making and writing, and the historical context for producing manuscripts in the medieval period in Iceland; the circumstances surrounding the collection and the significance of the manuscripts as cultural objects, together with the circumstances of their return to Iceland in the 1970s.

MIS803F History of the Icelandic language (10 ECTS; spring semester)

This course presents an overview of the history of Icelandic language from its earliest attestation to the present. Topics covered include the nature of language change, the sources of evidence for the history of the Icelandic language, the prehistory of Icelandic, selected phonological changes, morphological changes and syntactic changes, the First Grammatical Treatise, Norwegian influence in the 13th and 14th century, the language of the Reformation Era, dialectal variation, the standardization of Icelandic in the 19th and 20th century, tradition, legislation and controversy on personal names and family names, the Icelandic Language Council and some current issues in Icelandic language policy. The course is taught through a combination of lectures and workshops. A fair amount of time will be spent examining texts from different periods in their original orthogra-phy, identifying and analysing indications of language change and developing skills in dating texts based on orthographic and linguistic evidence.

FOR102F Viking Age Archaeology (10 ECTS; spring semester)

Overview of the history of the Viking age and history of Viking research. Emphasis is placed on the archaeological evidence, the sites and the objects, and discussing how archaeological data has contributed to our understanding of this period. Particular attention is given to economic patterns, issues of ethnicity and state formation.

FOR802M Medieval Archaeology (10 ECTS; spring semester)

During the last decades, medieval archaeology has experienced significant growth as a discipline concerned with material culture. Initially, the use of material culture was marginalized to the role of confirming or refuting historical knowledge about this period but today it is understood as having equal historical importance to the archived material. The course is thus intended to improve student’s understanding of Medieval Europe during the period 800–1600 AD through the study of material culture. It deals with general themes in medieval archaeology, such as identity, social status, rural and urban landscapes, religion, life and death, rather than the historical development of the Middle Ages in chronological order. The aim is to give students insight into the different fields of theory and method of medieval archaeology through both material and documentary evidences in accordance with the current state of research. A special emphasis will be put on medieval Iceland, as a part of European culture and society, but even on how medieval archaeologists gather their sources, analyse them and reach conclusions of historical importance.

ÞJÓ203F Old Nordic Religion and Belief (10 ECTS; spring semester)

An examination will be made of the religious beliefs and practices of people in Scandinavia from the earliest of times until the conversion, material ranging from burial practices to rock carvings, to the written evidence given in the works of Tacitus, Adam of Bremen and Saxo Grammaticus, as well as in early Icelandic works like the Eddic poems and the Kings' sagas. Alongside this discussion of the development and key features of Old Norse religion, some attention will be paid to the concepts of seid and shamanism, especially in connection to their role in early religions. Finally, an examination will be made of the conversion of Scandinavia and how Christian concepts and practices both fitted and contrasted with the previously dominant Old Norse worldview.

MIS201F New Critical Approaches (5/10 ECTS)

The New Critical Approaches seminar, a week-long intensive seminar offered in the second half of May every year, is taught by visiting faculty and covers a different subject every year. Recent seminars include:

Other courses offered in recent years include:

• Heroic poetry and legendary sagas (5 ECTS)
• Theoretical approaches to sagas about Icelanders (10 ECTS)
• Living with the dead in the Middle Ages (5 ECTS)
• Skaldic poetry and saga writing (5 ECTS)
• The Viking Mind (4 ECTS)
• Men, Women and Monsters (5 ECTS)
• Seminar: Cultural Encounters in the Middle Ages: Chaucer and the North (5 ECTS)
• Anglo-Saxons and Vikings (10 ECTS)
• Eddic Poetry Workshop (5 ECTS)
• Chrétien de Troyes and the chivalric romance in medieval culture (10 ECTS)
• Generic Hybridity in Saga Literature: the Case of the ‘Post-Classical’ Íslendingasögur (5 ECTS)
• Memory Studies and Oral Narratives (5 ECTS)
• Food in the Middle Ages: facts and mentalities (10 ECTS)
• Sagas and Tales of Icelanders: Description and classification (10 ECTS)
• Medieval Iceland, Research (10 ECTS)
• Saga Workshop: Grettis Saga and Njáls Saga (5 ECTS)
• Power and Law in Early Europe and Iceland (6 ECTS)
• Philosophical Topics in Medieval Icelandic Literature (5 ECTS)
• Old Norse-Icelandic Poetry: Current Issues in Research (10 ECTS)
• Literature and Psychoanalysis. From Medieval Romance and Saga to the Modern Novel (10 ECTS)
• Landscapes, Places and Sagas about Early Icelanders (5 ECTS)
• Magic and Sorcerers in Old-Norse Icelandic literature (5 ECTS)

In addition to traditional course work, excursions in Iceland will be offered. These typically include visits to important locations from the sagas, such as Njáls saga (Southern Iceland), Gísla saga (the Westfjords) or Bárðar saga and Eyrbyggja saga (Snæfellsnes).

The master’s thesis

The student shows in his master’s thesis that he/she can perform quality research in an independent manner on an academically important subject. The student has developed the ability to work independently and is prepared to write research papers on subjects in the area of medieval studies, on his own or with others.

A master’s thesis submitted to the University of Iceland should be approximately 50 pages, 20,000 words (ca. 400 words per page), inclusive of text, but exclusive of references, endnotes, appendices, and bibliography.